As a follow-up to the last post, I thought I’d share this article that I came across last spring regarding chimpanzee strength. Judging by your comments, you either think that Burrito is incredibly strong or that I am incredibly weak. I choose to believe the former.
Honestly, I can’t think of a human on this planet who could compete with a chimpanzee in terms of sheer strength. And yet, after all these years being around chimps, I’ve never really understood why this is. Sure, they are more muscular than most humans, but that doesn’t seem to be enough to explain such a dramatic difference in power.
There are two explanations that I’ve come across, and they both seem plausible (and they are not mutually exclusive). The first says that the chimpanzee’s greater strength is due to a difference in “musculoskeletal architecture”, meaning, basically, that their muscle fibers and the geometry of the attachments between muscle and bone are different than ours. Have you ever wondered how a 150-pound deer is able to gracefully leap over garden fences on those scrawny little legs? When you think about how powerful some animals can be with such small muscles, you start to realize that size isn’t everything. But the second explanation, available in detail from the link above, says that humans simply have more “cerebral inhibition” over muscle control. Basically, our brains limit the extent to which we can use our own muscles. Only once in a blue moon do we hear of someone using all of their available strength, and only in times of severe stress – for example, stories of mothers lifting cars when their children are trapped underneath (just an example, I don’t know if that’s actually ever happened!). Chimps, on the other hand, go full-bore all the time, making tog-o-war with their human caregivers a short-lived game.
Anyway, I’m in no position to evaluate either explanation, but its interesting to think about.
I looked up that article last night, too. I even read about the tests done in 1923 for determining chimpanzee strength. When I saw pictures of the late Cinder, at the St. Louis Zoo, and saw her muscles. That was enough proof for me at their superior strength.
By the way, J.B., I think you held your own with Burrito, you just let go and warned him ahead of time. The video ended before we could see his reaction, he looked like he stumbled backwards a little.
Whatever the explanation, Chimps are extremly powerful animals and you at CNSW are doing great in taking the proper precautions and respecting what they could do – even in play.
The theory that I have heard is that chimpanzees still swing in trees whereas humans evolved as bipeds, so human arms don’t need to be as strong. Not sure about the validity of the theory, but it’s what I’ve heard as a possible explanation.
As Debbie points out, in addition to proximate (physiological) explanations, there are many ultimate (evolutionary) explanations to think about. Our different environments would explain why chimps have stronger arms than legs and why we have stronger legs than arms. Along the same lines, it seems that during the course of human evolution we sacrificed some power in exchange for endurance. If you feel inadequate when compared to a chimpanzee, you can take comfort in the fact that you could probably beat a chimpanzee in a 5K run (hypothetically, of course).
I have also read a few articles about their strength and the most interesting point to me was that chimpanzee muscle is so dense that it allows them their incredible strength. Another reason they cannot swim. Where as humans are bouyant, chimps will sink due to the heaviness of their dense muscles and lack of fat. Their bones are also stronger and thicker in order to support those muscles. As a nurse, I found this explanation extremely interesting.
Fascinating article, J.B. Thanks for sharing.